5 Killer Image Strategies to Skyrocket Your Facebook Engagement

2012 was definitely the year of social media — but it was also the year of visual social media. If you’re looking to ramp up Facebook engagement on your Page, there’s only one place to start: with your visual strategy.

I know what you’re thinking — you already post photos, and you already know they get more views and clicks than regular updates. But are you posting them strategically? If the answer is “not exactly,” here’s some data from HubSpot that might surprise you:

Photos on Facebook generate 53% more likes than the average post.

Users upload 300 million photos to Facebook daily.

Instagram usage has skyrocketed 1,179% since April 2012.

(Read more — and get some awesome bonus tips — from the infographic here.) The key to leveraging images is to start thinking about them differently — as a distinct piece of content, just as important to your content strategy as any other campaign. Here are 5 ways to do just that:

1. The “Snackable” Image Strategy

This surprisingly effective strategy is also the easiest once you nail the formula: abite-sized update or question paired with a fun or bold image. I call it the “snackable” strategy because it’s quick, easy and fun for your fans — just take a look at how many people answered this Chick-fil-A status update, which features a simple “fill in the blank” question and an eye-catching text image: 4,179! (It was also shared and liked an additional 3,500 times combined.) The image doesn’t have to be text, either; Richard Branson recently posted an image of Peter Pan and asked people to share their own favorite character. Fun, fast and easy to digest!

Hint: If you’re looking for a great tool to customize your images, my favorite is PicMonkey.com.

2. The “Sneak Peek” Image Strategy

Believe it or not, people are not on Facebook to talk business — they’re on Facebook to have fun and most importantly, to interact with friends and family. So it doesn’t hurt if, on occasion, you go “behind the scenes” and share a personal snapshot from your day-to-day, whether it’s your puppy (guilty as charged!) or a candid office shot. Meet your fans where they’re at — ask for their advice on an office wall color, share a personal moment with your pet, and just let down your hair a little.

3. The “Action Image” Strategy

This third strategy can be combined with 1, 2, 4 and 5. What’s the secret sauce? Ask your fans to click like, share or comment.

When fans are asked to share a post, there’s a 3X higher like rate. When asked to comment, there’s a 3.3X higher comment rate. And this rate shoots to a 7X hike for shares. Amazing, right? But it’s just marketing 101 — if you want fans to act, you have to tell them what you want them to do. And the more engaged your fans are, the more people see your content. Engagement pays big dividends.

Melanie Duncan’s strategy is especially savvy — not only does she give a clear, direct CTA (“Share this important message and then click here to learn more”), she also offers a URL in the status update. Images + links ignite clicks!

4. The “Blog Post” Image Strategy

You probably spend a lot of time writing your blog posts and carefully choosing images and headlines to grab reader’s attention. So why post a link — and have Facebook auto-select a tiny thumbnail — when you could post a big, eye-catching screen grab of your latest blog?

It takes an extra couple of seconds to capture your blog post and upload the photo to Facebook using the “upload photo/video” button, but the results are worth the effort — one of my clients got 13,500 shares using this trick! Try Snagit to make your screen grabs quick and easy. (Just don’t forget the URL!)

5. The “Traffic Generating” Image Strategy

Finally, short teaser videos can revolutionize the way you run your Facebook Page and promotions. Not only do most people love video content, but Facebook now displays the opening frame just like a big image. Posting a video with a call to action (“Grab Your Seat” and “Join me, it’s free”) that creates some urgency or action is one of the best strategies I’ve ever used for driving traffic to a webinar, blog or online event. But again, don’t make the rookie mistake of forgetting that URL — if your video gets shared as often as mine did, you’ll be kicking yourself later!

I hope you’ll treat yourself — and your fans — to some great visual content this year. But I want to hear from you too: what image strategies have gotten the biggest results for you? Share them in the comments!

http://www.sociallysorted.com.au/ Donna Moritz

Great to see you post these tips up Amy – I loved them in your webinar last year. They are so simple, yet innovative, clever and creative. I will be sharing this post with all of my clients. Thanks again for giving so much great content! PS I Love that you mentioned Visual Social Media – I think 2013 will definitely continue to be about Visual Social Media – images are so important!

Justin_CasselPromotions

Great feature. Thanks for the tips.

Mark Molder

Great to see that you’re posting again Amy! Thanks for the valuable info. I wasn’t aware of PicMonkey. You always offer some great tips!

http://www.AmyPorterfield.com Amy Porterfield

Great to see your name here, Mark! PicMonkey is AWESOME :-)

http://www.AmyPorterfield.com Amy Porterfield

You are so welcome, Justin!

http://www.AmyPorterfield.com Amy Porterfield

Donna! You are the ultimate visual marketer – so coming from you, that means a lot!

http://www.razorsocial.com/ Ian Cleary

Thanks for the great tips Amy. I haven’t come across picmonkey.com before so I’ll certainly check this out.

Some great tips here, although I suspect some of the images are about to fall afoul of Facebook’s “20%” rule.

http://mxcoachradio.com/ AKA Byronious

This is cant live without content!

http://www.vaforlife.com/ Diana

Thank you for these awesome tips, Amy. I create a lot of Facebook images for status updates to my clients and I am getting a lot of info here. http:www.vaforlife.com

http://www.AmyPorterfield.com Amy Porterfield

Hi, Savannah. The only time they would not “work” is if you placed them into the news feed as an ad (like a Promoted Post). Otherwise they are great to use in any other way!

http://www.AmyPorterfield.com Amy Porterfield

I heard that from a few people too – so I think FB is playing with things yet again!

SiftingPoint

Amy, have you heard anything about not being able to have a “play button” on a photo anymore at the same time they made the no more than 20% text rule?

Thanks.

Geoff

http://www.AmyPorterfield.com Amy Porterfield

I heard that you cannot have a play button if you have not uploaded a video for the ad – bummer, I know! But when you are using your video in the ad, that’s ok.

tianakai

I really like the first tip. Everyone loves to share their own take, feel like an expert, be unique… it works brilliantly. Great post!

Rob

Hi Amy, can picmonkey auto share to your facebook fanpage?

http://myfriendexplosion.com/ Get More Instagram Followers

Hi Amy, really different post regarding Facebook I used to gather all latest news and read others post on Facebook. I think i go to gain certain useful facts from your post.

Ross Quintana

Some really great ideas here Amy. I hadn’t read you blog before and knew you were well known in social but we haven’t connected really yet and now I understand why your so popular :] I enjoyed your tips, especially the screen capture one. I look forward to connecting on FB and Twitter.

Blissification

Amy! This is JUST what I was looking for! At first I had difficulties managing The Indie Chicks Facebook Fan Page. These tips have definitely helped since timeline is now more image-centric.

Susanne Hansen

Hi Amy. I absolutely love your podcast show. With most of the podcasts I subscribe to I clear out the episode after I’ve listened to it – I RARELY keep an old episode. Until now! Your content is so over-the-top awesome. Thank you! Thumbs up for Amy unplugged:)

http://www.awazieikechi.com/ Awazie ikechi

Nice tips. I am going to try them out

http://www.awellstyledlife.com/ Jennifer Connolly

I’m new to your page and wisdom… Looking forward to learning the ropes!

About Amy

Amy is a social media strategist and co-author of Facebook Marketing All-In-One for Dummies. She helps entrepreneurs across industries establish strategies to maximize the power of social media and increase the success of their online marketing efforts.